Tuesday morning, I woke up bright and early at around 8:00 to go down and get breakfast at the Hotel's neighboring restaurant. I got a call at about 8:45 from Roland saying that they would meet me down there for breakfast. It's nice knowing the owner of these places, I get to order whatever I feel like and not have to worry about how much things cost. Roland was pretty much my sugar-daddy on the whole trip, which was amazing. It made it much easier on me as far as converting my greenbacks from one currency to the next! I ordered a plate of Gypsy Toast, which is very similar to French Toast here in the States, as well as an order of sausages. It was a hell of a lot of food, but I managed to get it all down my throat, though it would keep me full for the whole day pretty much.
Roland and Csilla had decided that we should go to Bratislava for shopping and shifting Siofok back a day. I have the utmost respect for Roland and his style, I tend to like the things that he likes and he seems to always have a better eye for things than I do, so I have been looking forward to shopping with him for years - especially regarding shoes. So that was my sole goal (no pun intended) - getting a pair of Euro shoes in Bratislava.
I have talked to a few people that have visited Bratislava, but it seems to be an unloved city when it comes to tourists. All I hear about are the communist style buildings and lack of a unique atmosphere. I was okay with that as long as there was good shopping. I mean, I wasn't there to visit museums or anything like that anyway.
We took the city streets to Bratislava with Csilla manning the wheel since Roland is an insomniac and hadn't slept much the night before. The Germans have a saying, "Frau am Steur ist immer teuer" (Girls behind the wheel are always expensive), but I trusted Csilla when she said she was a good driver and I was in safe hands. After my experience in Poland, I was pretty sure that my trust couldn't be shaken.
When we arrived in central Bratislava, I couldn't believe how beautiful it was, with cafes and restaurants lining the inner city and lovely Moravian architectured buildings everywhere. Where were the Stalinist, grey buildings that everyone talked about? Certainly not in the city center. We parked downtown without a problem and I immediately realized that I had forgotten my camera. No problem though, Roland had his with him. So when we got out into the center, we took out the camera - but there was no battery, of course. I had done the same thing in Warszawa, but at least my friend had his then! Oh well, I guess there would be no posing and fake smiles on Tuesday!
After cruising around laxidasically through town and window shopping, we found a store called Alize that I wanted to check out. I was surprised at how many stores in the city sold formal clothing like suits and what not. That must be the look in Bratislava, like it is in NYC. I realized that the styles in Bratislava were much more along the lines of what I would wear than what I found in Warszawa, so that was good news. Inside Alize, I found a shirt that I knew I had to have, and it was on sale as well, which was good news. I was surprised at how expensive clothes were there, certainly people wearing these clothes were not making the average Slovak salary!
After walking around some more, we decided it was time to dine, so we sat down and had a beer and ate at a Hungarian restaurant. This was like eating Mexican food in NYC - it may be made by Mexicans, but it's not legitimate Mexican food like you get in California. I had been told about Fish Soup (Halaszle in Hungarian) by Eve, who worked at the hotel. It is something that you have to try because it is a dark, thick soup that has a little paprika kick to it. I was told that it was not "real" halaszle, which was a sign that this place wasn't legitimate Hungarian ;o) . I still liked it and it did the trick for me.
Afterwards, we strolled casually back to the car to head to the mega shopping centers ("plazas") for some more realistically-priced shopping. As we left the city center, we suddenly had a police car go screaming by us and pull in front of us and point to the side of the road. I guess their cops don't tailgate you like they do in the states. Given the fact that there was a freeway exit between them and us now, I considered encouraging Csilla to make a sudden exit and get the hell out of dodge, but her judgement superceded my thoughts and she pulled over to find out what was up. According to the cops, she had run a red-light, but I hadn't been paying attention and she insisted that she hadn't. Roland decided to get involved at this point and asked the policemen to provide proof that we had run a redlight since everyone in the car said we hadn't. I was getting involved, but he could use my name, why not; I figured this was common Euro ticket protocol.
Or I guess it was not common Euro ticket policy as the cops were pissed off by the accusations and started searching the car for more problems and they found out the car hadn't had its registration renenewed since February. Oops. This meant they could have the car impounded and we would have to walk the two-hour drive home. Roland and Csilla pulled the ace card our of their pocket, however (Csilla started crying) and we got lucky and walked away with just a ticket for running the light. The cop told Csilla "Nice boyfriend you've got there (wink wink)". I guess all those bluffs that Roland practices on the poker tables don't always work so well in real life ;o).
We hit the City Centre shopping center, where I struck gold with shoes and Roland found an awesome pair of casual/professional Euro "elf" shoes. It was exactly what I was looking for and Roland's stamp of approval gave them immediate legitimacy. Later on, I found a new wallet (since my faux-Hugo Boss from China was falling apart) with a radical new system for holding cash. And, most importantly of all, Csilla found a DKNY watch that she searched high and low for and got it as a birthday present from her sugar-daddy Roland ;o) .
We did some more shopping at the Aupark plaza, which had some more cool stores like Mexx, before we decided to have dinner at Roland's recommended restaurant called Robinson. It had a jungle atmosphere inside and advertised that it had mojitos as its specialty. Mmmmm....me like mojitos! So we hung out inside the jungle and ordered our food and drinks, but I was sorely disappointed with the mojito - it was made with a mint syrup rather than real mint leaves! Bummer! Roland had caipirinha and our designated driver Csilla had some coke. I had a traditional Slovak meal of some pork in a sauce with dumplings, but I found the meat very questionable and extremely dry, which was disappointing. Roland's pepper steak and Csilla's fish were apparently more edible, however. But the food was nothing to really write a blog about. Well, I guess it was ;o).
After a long day of shopping and touring, it was time to head home so that we could get back at a reasonable hour and head to Siofok early the next day. One problem - we missed an exit and were suddenly on our way to Brno, Czech Republic. We made a couple illegal turns (risky, considering we already had one ticket that day) and made our way back towards the city center. Driving was chaotic because we didn't really know where we were and there were no signs pointing us towards our destination. Turn here, no turn there, wait go back, etc. etc. Suddenly, we (they!) had figured out where we were and made a quick lane change to get going in the right direction when.....BOOM!
Watch out for that car. On the last quick lane change of the night, we had collided with another car. The damage was not significant, but it was enough to cause our passenger door not to open and to leave a big scratch along the other guy's car. This is not what we had in mind at 9:30 at night. Proper protocol for a traffic accident is to call the police and have them write a report so that an insurance claim could be made. Apparently all the police were in the donut shops at that time, so time ticked and ticked and ticked and....ticked. Two hours later, the police pulled up - luckily not the same ones from a few hours earlier ;o). I guess I wouldn't want to be mugged in Bratislava. A half hour later, all the forms were filled out, all the fees were payed, and we were off to return home to Komarno. Thank god they didn't ask to see the car's registration papers ;o) !
Driving home at under the speed limit, we got home at around 1:00am that night, all of us exhausted and ready for a night's slumber in my hotel bed!
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